A Review Of The Atari 2600

Nostalgia is a potent, and yet a misused tool utilised by pessimists to make the world look like an increasingly daunting place.

In an informative capacity certain responsibility was felt obliged into investigating this point. Discoveries need to be made which can prove whether, or whether no such a faux-par actually exists.

Our vehicle for such a test is THE home entertainment system from the 1980's; the Atari 2600.

So what was it that made the system so good?

Well to start off with it, as with all true classics was way ahead of it's time. The Atari 2600 superseded the original Nintendo system by 5 years. Stop to consider if you will.

1980: To all intents and purposes a hangover from the '70's. People wanted everything to be new and funky and yet would only let the brief be fulfilled between certain standards. Looking at the original 2600 unit you can but laugh. Decked out in a false walnut burr the unit looks, by today's iMac-esque design standards, quite ridiculous, and yet it manages to carry a certain air of dignified class all of it's own. Dignified class nothing, the Atari 2600 is pure 1980's Kitsch.

Were the Games Up To Scratch?

By today's standards? Die-hard freaks need only apply here. For a laugh yes, certainly the Atari 2600 set many gaming standards. In a roundabout way it defined the input device we all now take for granted; the humble joypad. I say in a round-about way because the Atari computing company must have tried out every conceivable way of getting the player to interact with the system (an experimental controller that acted on brain pulses even reached the late stages of development).

Does Atari Deserve the Cult Following That They Receive?

Having been there originally and having re-visited these games I can honestly say some of the better ones still have the same shine. However the bad ones are now less entertaining than renovating vacuum cleaners. Yes they may not entertain you for hours on end with sub-plots and bonus levels, but you can instantly get into these games. With one cursor and one fire-button you don't even need the motor control of an octopus to participate. Though many games revolve around the same theme the originality of them is immense considering the constrictions of those early days.

The Final Rundown.

So would I trade Sony's PSII for a second-hand 2600. No, I truly believe even the most romantic of game players will realise that the 2600 was a pivotal milestone in the development of not only the gaming industry but home computing and ultimately the media-revolution that we are in the grips of today.

6/10 Good for getting some mates round, getting bevvied up on sugar and caffeine, and having the biggest laugh you had since your Gran farted at Sunday Lunch.

-Mr. Leisure